


The Choice Between Art and Love

by danrdarrenc



Category: As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives
Genre: sort of a crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-30
Updated: 2014-10-30
Packaged: 2018-02-23 04:41:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2534570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danrdarrenc/pseuds/danrdarrenc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will meets the director of his mother's movie. His name is Noah Mayer and he gives Will some friendly advice on dealing with the current state of Will's relationship with Sonny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Choice Between Art and Love

"Will! Will, over here!" Sami waves him over to where she is standing with a tall dark-haired man.

"Will, this is the director of the movie, Noah Mayer," Sami gives her son a megawatt smile and clings tightly to Noah’s arm.

"Hi. Nice to meet you," Will smiles and holds out his hand. Noah smiles back at him and shakes his hand. 

"Isn’t this great?" Sami bounces on her toes a little and hugs Will excitedly. "I’m gonna go check on the kids," she says when she lets him go and then flounces away.

Noah and Will are left alone in awkward silence. After a beat, Noah says, “When Greenblatt showed me the article you wrote about your family, I just knew I had to make a movie about it.”

Will grins sheepishly and says, “You know I don’t really know anything about writing screenplays. I might need some guidance.”

"Well, I actually have some notes about what I want in there and what can be taken out or changed. How about we get some dinner and drinks and talk it over." 

Noah writes an address on a slip of paper, hands it to Will before patting him on the arm, and walks away.

Will blinks after him, confused, but oddly elated.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Four hours later, Will pushes open the door of the pub Noah had suggested earlier. Once inside, he’s confronted by a haughty looking hostess who is about to ask him how many people he is when he spots Noah sitting at a table near the bar.

Will points to Noah, skirts past her, and slides into the chair across from Noah. 

"Hey. I’m glad you came," Noah says.

"Yeah. Sure. I’m open to ideas about the movie." Will picks up the menu resting on the table in front of him and quickly scans it to decide what he wants to eat.

"Actually, I have an ulterior motive," Noah says, looking over at him through heavily lidded eyes. "I like to find out about the writers I’m working with but I didn’t want you to think I was coming on to you or anything."

"Oh, well," Will says, flustered a little. He won’t lie to himself and say that this guy doesn’t remind him a bit of Sonny. He’s only been here two days and he already misses his husband. How did he ever think he could be away from him for six months? 

"So, before we talk shop, why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself," Noah offers, digging into the complimentary basket of nacho chips that the waiter had brought over when he took their orders. 

"You know a lot about me already from reading the article I wrote," Will answers.

"Yeah. But I want to hear it from you," Noah interjects.

"Okay. Well, I grew up in Salem, which is a small town in Illinois. It seems almost incestuous after a while, like everyone knows each other but we have an airport and a couple high schools and a college so it’s actually more like a small Chicago outlet."

"I know what you mean," Noah replies. "I’m originally an army brat but I spent a good few years in Oakdale, Illinois, which sounds like Salem. It’s small and it seems like everyone knows each other. But there’s an airport and a college and stuff."

"Oh! I’ve heard of Oakdale. Yeah, that’s not too far from Salem," Will smiles and pops a couple of chips in his mouth.

"I liked it there for the most part," Noah says and Will notices his eyes get kind of dark and that there seems to be a sadness to his words.

"It can be suffocating at times. I actually left for a couple years when I was about fourteen to live with my Aunt and Uncle in Switzerland. The drama with my mom was getting too much for me."

"Tell me about it."

"Uh, well, okay. She had already had four or five boyfriends slash husbands by then, I think. She was finally married to my dad after a couple false starts and then like two weeks after the wedding she decided to leave my dad for EJ. I was pretty upset." Will doesn’t mention that he shot EJ. "So I asked if I could leave and they let me."

"That’s cool. My dad would never have let me do that. He would have insisted I stay and be a man about it." Noah’s words are laced with bitterness and sarcasm.

Will furrows his brows and tries to read Noah’s expression as their food is placed in front of them. 

"Sorry. Tell me about what happened when you came back."

"Um. Let me think," Will muses and takes a bite of his cheeseburger. "When I first came back my mom had this new baby, Grace her name was, that she said she had adopted. But really she was EJ’s kid. Mom had gotten herself put in Witness Protection to keep EJ from finding out she was pregnant. That was where she met Rafe. And when she came back to Salem she said she had adopted this baby with Rafe." 

"Did EJ figure it out?" Noah asks as he chews on a French fry. 

Will fiddles his fork on top of his own fries. “Um, yeah, he did. But not until after Grace had died.”

"I’m sorry." 

"It’s okay because we kind of got her back in a way. It turns out that my girlfriend at the time, Mia McCormick had gotten pregnant by her ex, Chad, who was also my friend, and Nicole Walker who was married to EJ at the time was also pregnant but miscarried. Nicole made a deal with Mia to take her baby and pass it off as her own with EJ but then she found out Mom was pregnant and decided to switch Mia’s baby with Mom’s. So my real sister Sydney was with Nicole until Mom realized what had happened and took her back."

Noah stares blankly at him. Will laughs. “I should have written it all down before I told you all this. It’s confusing, I know. You need a chart or something. That’s not even all of it.”

"It’s not?" Noah sounds wary but he smiles.

"No. But it’s probably easier if I make you an outline of everything that’s gone on since I got back to Salem." Will grins and finishes his burger. "You really wanted to know about me, so."

"Yes, of course. What were you doing in all this?"

"Mostly, I was going to Salem High and dealing with stupid teenage relationship stuff. About a year after I came back I got pretty serious with Gabi Hernandez." Will pauses.

"She’s the mother of your daughter, right?"

Will nods. “That was also when I first started to realize I was gay.”

"Oh."

"Yeah. It got pretty bad but Sonny was there to help me through it all." Will smiles to himself and absentmindedly fiddles with the wedding band on his finger.

"You’re married." Noah indicates Will’s hand.

"Yeah. Sonny and I got married a little over six months ago."

"Did he come with you?" Noah blinks big grey-blue eyes at him in curiosity.

Will stares down at his plate. “No. He’s actually staying in Salem. He runs a club there and he’s in the process of expanding. It really wasn’t a good time for him.”

"But you came anyway?" Noah’s brow furrows and Will wonders why Noah’s voice has such angry undertones to it.

"It was a great opportunity for me. I couldn’t pass it up."

Noah clenches his jaw and doesn’t respond for a minute.

"Is something wrong?"

"The summer I got to Oakdale I met this boy," Noah says by way of response. "His name was Luke Snyder. You remind me a lot of him, actually. Cute, blonde hair. He was a writer too."

Will remains silent, unsure what this is about.

"Lots of stuff from outside sources happened to us but we always came out stronger on the other end of it. Until we decided to make a movie together. Luke had written a screenplay and I was going to make it for my senior project for school. My advisor didn’t like the script and convinced me to go in another direction. He said to me, ‘The choice between art and love is a lot older than us. When it arises choose the art. Hopefully the love will be more forgiving.’" Noah snorts in derision. "Looking back on it, I should not have listened to him."

Will squirms uncomfortably in his seat. “What happened?”

Noah bites the inside of his cheek for a few seconds before answering. “I consistently chose art over love that summer. I even took a trip out here with my advisor and missed Luke’s father’s funeral. He told me I should come here because it’d be good for my career but I should have realized he was just being selfless like he always was.” Noah smiles to himself nostalgically. “Luke always looked out for me first and foremost even if it was at the expense of his own feelings.”

"That sounds like Sonny," Will whispers.

"Does it? Well, the story’s not finished. Things got bad at the end of the summer and I got pretty upset with Luke and blamed him for something he didn’t really do. I pushed him away, didn’t respect his feelings, and he ended up falling in love with someone else."

Will’s mouth drops open in horror.

"We weren’t married but I kind of took it for granted that we’d be together for ever. And then one day he was gone."

Will is quiet, his thoughts working overtime.

"I know this is a great opportunity for you, Will. But I’m going to tell you what Mason should have told me. When you have to choose between art and love, choose love. There will always be more opportunities. If you have someone who truly loves you and is devoted to you, which it sounds like Sonny is, don’t let him go. If you do, if you push him away, even if you feel like he’s suffocating you with his love, don’t. He might not come back."

Will swallows thickly. “Sonny wouldn’t fall in love with somebody else.”

"I didn’t think Luke would either. He’d always said I was the love of his life. But people come along and things change. Love happens. We don’t plan it. I lost out on my chance to make things right with Luke. I haven’t even spoken to him in, like, two years. My biggest regret is that I didn’t appreciate Luke. He was trying to support me and I was overwhelmed by his love to the point where I rejected it. I wish more than anything that I could go back and change things. Maybe we’d still be together. Maybe we’d be married."

Will takes a drink of water, his mouth suddenly very dry.

"Promise me that if you work on this movie, you will fight to keep your relationship alive and well and healthy. I don’t want to see you end up like me. I really don’t." Noah looks at him pointedly and his eyes blaze with fire.

"I promise," Will croaks. "I, um. I have to go. I need to talk to Sonny."

Will stands up and hands Noah a twenty dollar bill.

"It’s on me," Noah says, waving him off.

"Thanks. For everything."


End file.
